site.btaGraham Bonnet Comes to Sofia this Autumn

The Graham Bonnet Band is coming to Sofia this autumn, the organizers from Sofia Music Enterprises (SME) said. The band will perform Since You’ve Been Gone and many other hard rock classics on November 4 at the Joy Station Club.

"In rock, there are voices you never forget. There is stage presence you don’t expect. And then there is… Graham Bonnet, the only rock singer who looks like a Miami Vice character and sings as if he heads an army of hurricanes," SME's announcement said.

Born in England in 1947, self-taught and unrestrained, Graham Bonnet is the person who Ritchie Blackmore personally picked to replace Ronnie James Dio as Rainbow’s singer. Although at the beginning he didn’t like his short hair and style which was not that of a rocker. His style and hair didn’t change but then came the Down to Earth album and the superhit Since You’ve Been Gone that blew everyone away, SME added. The single turned into one of Rainbow’s greatest hits, an eternal refrain of lost love, sung with a raised fist and tears in one’s eyes.

Bonnet is known for his powerful vocals, he has been described as an "erupting volcano" that belies his more subdued, accountant-like exterior. He is said to be the vocal equivalent “the raw power and speed of a Ferrari contrasted with the unassuming, everyday look of a bank teller's suit.”  

The band includes Beth-Ami Heavenstone, a bassist with a long rock history (part of Alcatrazz), Conrado Pesinato, a Brazilian guitarist, Francis Cassol, a Brazilian drummer, Jani Holli, and a Finnish keyboard musician.